


but you don’t see what i see (you never will)

by tousled



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Ableist Remarks, Alternate Universe - Game Simulation, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Aro Ace Tuffnut, F/F, Half siblings Astrid and Hiccup, Lewd Remarks, Simulated Body Horror, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-08-27 17:12:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8409889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tousled/pseuds/tousled
Summary: Astrid enters the Simulation when her relatives and friend get lost to it, Ruff thinks this human is particularly interesting.*on HIATUS*





	1. NEW COMER

**Author's Note:**

> holy shit, this fic is my ridiculous, bad-mouthed self indulgent weird ass simulation/game world au? i had _so_ much fun writing this, it's so easy to write rn, and it's probably full of mistakes and issues but that's okay. httyd fic has always been so freeing to me bc it was self indulgent and low pressure bc ppl weren't expecting things from me. it's only fitting i write a giant self indulgent mess/
> 
> this story's jam is [simulation by tkay maidza](). adore this song so fucking much. also it rlly inspired me, i wanted to put aspects of the tone and concepts in the story, so i hope that works well. the title is also a lyric from this.
> 
> so, yeah the concept came from this idea of the gang playing in a game and astrid going in after hiccup, fishlegs and snotlout and getting info from the twins (re: how the day 2 oct 29th httydrarepairweek2016 prompt comes in) and i didn't realise until 2k in it's like, a spy kids 3 au lmao. sort of. i made a terrible joke about it. i hope you enjoy reading and pls don't take anything too seriously! it's just supposed to be a bunch of ridiculous fun. 
> 
> fyi content warnings for a bunch of swearing & ableist language, a bunch of lewd remarks by ruff abt astrid, (simulated) body horror and uhm ??

The new comer is in candy pink. She's got a long blonde braid curling over her shoulder and her mouth is set in a grim line, the ClassicTM expression of someone who's lost another to the game.

 

Ruffnut is _delighted._

 

Pretty and angry-looking; that's her absolute _favourite_. She elbows Tuffnut, knocking over the set of key cards he's was balancing in the shape of level five's haunted mansion. "Look," she points at candy pink, "we've got an Avenging Angel over there."

 

Tuff frowns at his ruined creation, but perks up at the sharp line of candy pink's posture. AAs, after all, are unbearably _fun._ She's got her blaster up, pointing it any movement like the fucking simulated meadow butterflies are going to fuck you up. That doesn't even happen until at least level twelve.

 

"Hey, Blondie," Ruff yells, "over here!"

 

The blaster swings their way, candy pink looking down the sight like she has _actual_ experience with actual non-simulated guns. She frowns, not fully lowering the blaster, fingers twitching as she steps forward. Her posture stiffens, if that's even possible, and her eyes dart between the pair of them.

 

"Can you like, not accidentally shoot me in the god damned save space, I'm waiting for my health points to recuperate." Tuff drawls, starting his house of key cards up again.

"You don't have to treat the blaster like an actual gun," Ruff adds, even though it's fucking hot the way candy pink's toting it around. "It requires no actual skill. Point in the general direction and _want_ it to hit accurately."

 

"That," candy pink looks at the blaster in her hands, "that doesn't really make sense. Why have a gun that doesn't work properly? I thought this was supposed to be realistic."

"Too much maths." Ruff shrugs. Easier to cheat code out of too, if it's relying on vague coding of _want_ instead of actual physics calculations. "Who'd you lose?"

 

Candy pink does a double take, jerking back half a step. Her frown slips into confusion for a second, her blaster moving back up defensively. She schools her expression, dropping back into Ice Queen with a practiced ease.

 

"My brother," She starts. Her mouth is half way through the next word as a laugh blurts out of Ruff's chest.

"We should swap. I'll lose mine and you can have yours back." Ruff offers, nudging Tuff's arm again. "Sounds good, right Tuff?"

 

"What?" Tuff's key cards crumple into nothing again. He waves a hand, frustrated sigh oozing out his mouth, "yeah, yeah sure. Sounds great."

 

"See?" Ruff pulls her shoulders up around her ears, lips turning upwards too. "Sounds great."

"And our cousin, plus our friend." Candy pink finishes, brows scrunching together. Ruff would like to lick her.

"Oh." Ruff concedes, "Which one do you _really_ want back? I don't think Tuff's worth more than one player."

 

Candy pink gives the Look. It’s a mixture of emotions so complex that the creator just refers to it as the Meeting The Thorstons Look. Not really that catchy, but it's legendary in-game.  

 

"All of them." Candy pink says, a note of finality in her tone. That's even more promising. Pretty, angry-looking and righteous. She's a goddamned gold mine all wrapped up in art nouveau gift wrap.

"Such an AA," Tuff shakes his head, giving up on his key cards and glitching them back into his code.

 

"AA?" Cany pink's brows dance up her forehead, and really? She looks like a rule reader, surely she looked up the game up on forums pre-playing.

 

"AA like, an acronym, for Avenging Angel." Ruff explains, and at candy pink's lost expression adds with a hand wave, "like, someone who's in-game looking for someone else who's been lost. We wanted to just use Avenger, but it was already in use and the copyright laws are a little vague, y'know?"

"Avenging Angel sounds like you should have wings." Tuff laughs, and then applies a hack to produce tiny fairy floss coloured wings sprouting out his back.

 

"They look fucking dumb." Ruff points out, flicking one of the wings. They shimmer a deep purple and a pale green as they move, reflecting light.

"They look fucking _awesome._ " Tuff insists, fluttering his wings some more. "I'm keeping them."

 

"Ah, you could just call me Astrid," Candy pink says with a shrug, "no nicknames needed."

"That's half the fun," Ruff replies, just as Tuff announces "you look like a Agatha."

 

"What the fuck," Ruff says. She punches him in the shoulder, hard enough his health meter dings and loses several points. Tuff glares and punches Ruff back, her own health meter taking an, admittedly, tiny hit.

 

"You know what," Candy pink - _Astrid_ \- says, blaster gripped tighter in her hands. "Don't worry, forget my name, I think I'll be fine by myself.

 

She swings around, facing the opposite direction from the twins and walks very determinedly onwards. Her posture is still broom handle rigid, very impressive, but she's just walking into the expanses of the save space. There's only more players and cheat codes that way.

 

"Think we should tell her the game portals are the other way?" Ruff asks, poking at Tuff's new wings again. He shifts away so she can't reach them.

"Nah, let her wander around for a while. She'll be back eventually, the save space is mostly full of imbeciles." He conjures up his key cards again, writing a pebble code to help stack up the base.

 

Ruff shrugs, it's true really. Still. "I kind of want to make her scream, y'know."

"We could write her brother into something else, like a really ugly tree." Tuff suggests. "Or impassable lava pit. Lots of screams in the whole, my brother keeps accidentally killing me thing."

"Clearly not." Ruff rolls her eyes, knocking over the key card house with a miniature gale code she stole from a kid who'd tried to write her glitch out of the game. "A good kind of scream, idiot."

 

"Gross." Tuff intones.

 

By the time Astrid has walked back, back ramrod straight and blaster missing a few shots, Tuff's moved onto steel reinforced doors to create a life sized model of level five's haunted mansion. The miniature gale had proved itself hilarious and useful, so Ruff had started producing the code for a full sized gale.

 

"The game portals are that way." Tuff says, jerking a thumb behind him. His wings give away the fact he's shaking with repressed laughter. They've just gotten full health, so Ruff refrains from hitting him again.

"I worked that out," Astrid says, voice level but her cheeks are dusted with pink. Ruff commits the hex triplet to memory.

 

Astrid continues on to the game portals, and Ruff looks at Tuff, an eyebrow quirked. He shrugs in response, so once Astrid's clear of the stacked doors Ruff knocks them over once more. A skip in her step, Ruff climbs over the debris.

 

"One day," Tuff promises the doors, following after Ruff.  

 

"Hey, blondie, wait up." Ruff calls, increasing her pace to catch up with Astrid. "We can totally help you find your brother."

"And your cousin and friend too, if we're still interested in them." Tuff adds, dawdling behind.

 

"I'm all right," Astrid says, pulling to a stop in front of the game portals. Her eyes glaze over at the complexity of it all, looking from portal to portal. Ruff'd love to make her eyes glaze over for a completely different reason.

 

"Oh, so you totally know which one to start at." Ruff shrugs, an exaggerated motion of her shoulders and downturn of mouth. "Or where to find your brother."

"Plus cousin and friend." Tuff repeats, peering into the level sixteen portal. He glitches a notepad into existence and scribbles out the fight sequence occurring.

  


"And, what?" Astrid demands, crossing her arms over her chest somewhat awkwardly with the blaster in hand. Her mouth is just a thin line, "you _can_?"

"Well, yeah." Ruff tries to put as much _duh_ into the sound as she can.

 

"Where to start, or find my brother, cousin and friend?"

 

"Both," Ruff replies as Tuff waves his hand in a yes and no sort of fashion.  She elbows him, giving a tiny nod and Tuff springs a locality map up against the first game portal.

 

"What's their handle names?" Tuff asks, expanding the map to include bonus rounds and side games.

"Hiccup, Snotlout and Fishlegs." Astrid offers, looking over the map with hurried eyes.

"Nah, their _handles,_ names ain't going to help here." Tuff says, focusing in on the first save space where they are currently. "See, we're here," - he points to three glowing dots - "I'm thing01 and Ruff's thing02, you must be ahofferson92."

 

"Hey," Ruff pushes Tuff's shoulder, " _I'm_ thing01, you're thing02. I only agreed to that if _I_ was thing01."

"I'm the oldest, so I'm thing01." Tuff replies, pushing Ruff back. She pokes a wing, that full body shudder is a reward all in itself.

"By _five minutes."_ Ruff snaps. And really, he was only first because he was easier to code, she's sure.

 

"God, this is so embarrassing," Astrid sighs, voice soft with some kind of glorious high definition shame. "But they're dragonlovva94, n3rdpr0ud and gunsout2003."

 

"gunsout2003?" Tuff crows, reeling back from the shove fight that had started out between him and Ruff. "He's a bloody legend! Love that guy."

 

"Oh," Astrid says, "is he good?"

 

"No, he's _terrible._ " Ruff sniffs, "also he cheats. Badly. He's got great cheat ideas but poor execution."

"A Legend." Tuff demands. "We can _never_ reach his level. We probably don't _want_ to but we definitely can't."

 

"How... you've both been playing this game for a very long time, haven't you?" Astrid poses it like a question, but one she doesn't want, or is afraid of, the answer.

"Eh, now and again." Tuff shrugs, shifting the locality map to find gunsout2003. He's stuck in level three, jumping between the start and ends of the level in eight second loops.

 

"Oh dear," Tuff tutts, tapping at the map.

"What?" Astrid looks between the blinking dot on the map and the twins, frown dimpling her forehead. At this rate, she'll have worry wrinkles by the end of the game. Good thing Ruff's into the whole hot older woman look.

"Dumbass used a code that's been patched," Ruff explains. Which is, not unusual. The creator produces a lot of patches, weird that it's gunsout2003 because his cheats are so, _unique._ "His cheat glitched because the level's been fixed so the cheat doesn't work anymore."

 

"He's not stuck like that forever, right?" Astrid looks like she's mentally preparing the best way to explain this to grieving parents. Ruff's almost sad she doesn't have a physical body to literally see that happening. Maybe she'll ask Astrid to film it.

"He's gonna die there, probably." Ruff shrugs, "in a hole of his own making. A lesson to all, don't cheat."

 

"He'll be fine, he's a Legend _,_ " Tuff stresses _legend,_ hands waving the importance. It means nothing to anyone but him. "We can just skip straight to level three and finish the level for him, then he'll be out of the glitch."

 

"Can you skip levels?" Astrid starts, stopping with a frown and taps at her blaster. "Or, rather, can I skip levels? I've not played anything yet."

"Sure," Ruff bumps the locality map away, letting it sink back into Tuff's code. She shifts over to the level three portal, "we've just got to use a cheat."

 

The "didn't cheating get Snotlout into this mess?" is lost as Ruff steps through the portal, noise rushing in to the idyllic sounds of constructed nature.

 

Tuff appears a second later, fluttering his wings like the shift upset them. If they're a tad larger, he could probably _actually_ fly with them, but Ruff's not going to let him get the edge. Maybe she should make her own wings, but like, cooler. Less fairy princess sparkles magic.

 

"She coming through or?" Ruff flicks her eyes back to the portal, but continues down the hill to where the glitching gunsout2003 had been appearing on map.

"We've been very helpful," Tuff ignores the question, posing his own with eyebrows at his hairline. "What kind of game are _you_ playing here?"

 

"Long," Ruff expands her arm, knocking straight into the glitched gunsout2003 as he appears. He stumbles, stepping backwards and disappears again. "It's more exciting if she _finally_ gets all the people back but still can't get out the game. Plus, hopefully, orgasms."

"We could just let her get lost by herself," Tuff pauses as gunsout2003 reappears. Eight seconds later he blinks off again, half a call for help left behind. "That'd be pretty exciting too. An AA being stuck in level one. Or the save zone."

 

"Orgasms." Ruff repeats, even as Tuff's rolling his eyes, nose wrinkled.

"It's like you _want_ to be human." He, too, actually does. He wants to try real human food, like chilli cheese dogs and pepperoni pizza, not code in the shape of simulated food. "All that messy, surplus code and repeating fragments. So much error."

 

"Whatever, nothing's been this fun sounding in a while, I'm bored. She's pretty, and determined. Let's see this out for a while, yeah? If it gets boring, we can shift." Ruff says, voice sharp with finality and Tuff rolls his eyes again, movement so exaggerated his shoulders and wings shift with it.  

 

gunsout2003 reappears, hands out as he stumbles in front of Tuff, grabbing at Tuff's arm. He glitches again, dragging Tuff's arm with him, nearly pulling Tuff into the glitch space.  

 

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Tuff shouts, shaking his other hand at the space where his arm was. He morphs a lobster claw in its place, clicking it together thoughtfully before shifting it to a mantis forearm.   

"You should definitely try a tentacle," Ruff says, wriggling her arms out in front of herself in a terrible approximation of tentacles. Tuff laughs, and morphs the other arm into a purple spotted tentacle just as the game portal whirrs.

 

"Fucking _finally,_ " Ruff mutters, looking up at the glow of Astrid's candy pink game suit stepping out of the glare of the portal. It's so bright Ruff has to bring a hand up, shielding her eyes against the glow.

 

Tuff sniggers, tentacle arm back to a regular arm and winks conspiratorially at Ruff.

 

"You must be The Guy." Tuff says, voice full of exaggerated wonder and eyes beyond physically possible wide.

"Seriously? I saw Spy Kids 3." Astrid snorts, but then freezes. She looks at first Tuff, and then Ruff, suspicion settling in the corners of her eyes.

 

"Lame movie, everyone knows sequels suck." Ruff intones, elbowing Tuff. Bad move. And besides, no one likes being compared to Juni Cortez. "Let's beat this fucking level to retrieve gunsout2003."  

 

Just at that moment, gunsout2003 reappears, no longer holding Tuff's arm, but a horrified look on his face. Astrid's expression drops to surprise and elation. She calls out "Snotlout!" as Tuff yelps and disappears with gunsout2003.

  
"Okay, correction." Ruff amends with a shrug. "Let's beat this fucking level to retrieve gunsout2003 _and_ my dumbass brother."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. clearly, i am not gamer and my language surrounding the concepts of the coding/etc is severly lacking. it's not super important, and this is a FakeTM game concept so hopefully you can suspend any disbelief on any wording!  
> 2\. comments are super appreciated, let me know what you think/where it should go/if you want me to explain concepts (if i can, there might be spoilers for things that don't make sense rn)  
> 3\. i've already started the second chapter, but i might not update until after the end of httydrarepairweek2016 bc i am _trying_ to write something for each day.  
>  4\. thanks for reading so far!


	2. GIANT LAND WORMS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rescue of Snotlout from the cheat glitch doesn't quite go as planned, an interloper appears and Fishlegs' level stuck is a tad too funny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyway i'm super sorry this took so long, i've been so distracted with work, and christmas and being ??? sick. anyway,,,, remind me to work on this i'm gonna Finish it I promise..... eventually. 
> 
> hope you enjoy the next chapter! let me know what you think. 
> 
> also haven't edited like? a few joining pieces pls let me know if i've made a mistake/what it is, thanks. i dont mean to, i'll fix asap if i need to. enjoy!

"Uh, did Tuff have an insect arm or?" Astrid gestures at the space he and gunsout2003 - _Snotlout_ \- had been. They pop back a moment later, Tuff incredulous but admiring. Ruff can almost _hear_ the exclaimed "Legend!" Tuff's mouth is forming around.  

 

"Yeah," Ruff shrugs. The two boys disappear once more. 

"Okay." Astrid sounds the vowels out, shifting the grip of her hands on her blaster. Ruff's really starting to think the fucking thing's a safety blanket, or something. 

 

"You missed the tentacle arm, if that's any consolation." 

 

"It, uh, it is." Astrid rolls her shoulders in a tiny half shrug, turning to survey the land ahead. It's, impressive rendition speaking, very high quality looking grass but as a landscape it's. Well, pretty much exactly the same as the save space. The first four levels are, saves a bunch of space to have identical basics. "What do we _do_ here?" 

 

"Kill worms, mostly." Ruff pulls up a blaster similar to Astrid's, but it's got a self refilling patch. Handy. Astrid could probably really do with one of those too. 

"Worms? Sounds easy." 

 

"Sure." Ruff agrees, taking a careful step onto the first patch of sand, springing into motion the second the pixels shift and blur. 

 

"What?" Astrid shouts, startled into motion too. She's not careful, not looking where's she stepping and careens straight into a worm, flickering out as health points ding away. Dazed, she hovers on the spot, still flickering and Ruff swears, turning on a dime to push her back and out of the way. She's too slow, and the both of them get eaten. 

 

They blink back to the starting knoll, landscape pristine as if nothing had even just happened. 

 

_"Fuck."_ Ruff exclaims. 

 

"What in the _shit,_ " Astrid responds. She twirls around to gesture at Ruff with her blaster, eyebrows crunched together, mouth tight. 

"Worms," Ruff gestures with her blaster, a tiny uplift of a shoulder. 

 

"And you couldn't have explained that _before_ we started the level?" Astrid demands, stamping a foot. She's still clutching at the blaster, both hands now, holding it to her chest. Ruff's not really that apologetic, Astrid's _hot_ when she's mad. 

 

"I mean, I thought you wanted to do this properly?" Ruff shrugs, rolling her eyes in a fluid movement with twisting back to face the sand. She grips her blaster securely, bending her knees before darting back out into the sand, scanning the ground as she runs. 

 

Astrid curses, stepping out onto the sand behind Ruff. There's a worm, almost immediately, and it splatters with a quick two blasts, simulated goo splattering over the both of them. Ruff dodges another, side stepping into Astrid and gripping her arm to swing her out of the way of another. 

 

"You can see the sand shift, just before." She shouts, firing at another worm. Astrid's got her blaster up too, but she's splitting her time too widely between staring and shooting. She steps right on a worm, shuttering as she loses health and then, with her arm still under Ruff's hand blinks back to the start space. 

 

" _Fuck,"_ Ruff swears, glitching her arm back on once she's standing at the start again. Tuff and Snotlout pop up for a moment, disappearing a few seconds after. 

 

"If you _told_ me what to do I'd be better at this!" Astrid snaps, one arm crossed over her chest. She's all hard lines, sharp angles and deep frown lines. Ruff is so all over that. 

"It's just? You need to move, quick, and watch for the shifting of pixels because that's a giant land worm, and shoot them. Plus don't touch them. It's just, mostly practice." Ruff shrugs, pushing her brother when he and Snotlout appear again. 

 

"There any pattern? Can we learn where they're going to be and judge it?" Astrid's posture has relaxed, but she's tapping against her leg now. 

"No, it's all random." Ruff's really doubting the true randomiser they coded into this level now. It's going to get boring quick if they're just too slow on this level. Maybe she _should_ cheat to get through it quicker. " _True_ random, there's no prediction at all." 

 

Though, the creator would hardly let Tuff be stuck in a level forever. 

 

"I guess, we just go for it, then?" Astrid asks, all the taught frustration and thinking leaching out of her shoulders. Softer, more thoughtful Astrid is just as appealing as all the other facets. The moue on her mouth deserves to be kissed away. 

 

"Yeah," Ruff shrugs, stepping up to the edge of the grass again. She's not excited for another start. 

 

This time, there's a worm exactly as Ruff steps out, just in front and she goes tumbling backwards into the start space. Astrid catches her, blaster dropped as her hands cup shoulders. She's _warm,_ like they're _real_ people, like the sun's not simulated and it sends shivers down Ruff's spine. 

 

"Uh, thanks," Ruff says, loathe to pull away but so otherwise flustered she needs a moment. Astrid's mouth darts into a tight smile, like it's a secret between them. 

 

"This is getting real old!" Tuff announces as he and Snotlout burst into the space between Astrid and Ruff. His wings flutter in Ruff's face, and she bats at him. "We're like half a metre away from the end point, it's fucking ridiculous." 

"You've only been doing this for a couple of minutes," Snotlout whines, the next sentence cut off by them disappearing again.

 

The moment broken, Astrid bends to pick up her blaster and levels it ready. Ruff copies the motion, rolling her shoulders and steps into a start position. 

 

"On three," Astrid says. Ruff's terrible at the whole, one three, doing things simultaneously experience, really. She steps out before the _three_ passes Astrid's mouth, a step ahead. A worm appears to her left, blaster up and ready she shots at it, glancing the side. That scares it enough to make it disappear. 

 

There's another slightly to the left a moment later, and the next blaster shot is a direct hit. Simulated gore bursts like a fucking firework, bad coding really Ruff thinks, and she ducks as she races forwards. Astrid's holding up to the right, taking out a worm barrelling down towards Ruff. She yells a warning, giving Ruff a shove forwards and then _pockets her blaster._

"What in the ever loving  _fuck!"_ Ruff yells, shooting wildly at any and all movement. 

 

Astrid flicks her a glance, eyes focused on the shifting pixels of a patch of sand in front. She takes a wide step, body tilting forward, Ruff shouts a warning, hand darting out to catch as Astrid seems to over balance. The movement switches halfway through, a fall morphing into a goddamn cartwheel over the space and past the worm, distracting it. 

 

Ruff plants a foot and shoots it square in its ugly little pixelated face. 

 

"Aim for the pedestal!" She shouts, skidding into a spin to turn her blaster to a worm that's been doggedly following her, sluggish for these ones. Blaster aimed towards it, the worm strikes, lightning quick. 

 

Throwing up her hands, Ruff swears and shoots at anything, at everything. There's a sickening moment, where the worm touches her, swears in her throat and eyes shut like that'll help, and then she's blinking back. 

 

" _Fuck,_ " Ruff spits out, eyes still closed. She's definitely not sworn enough for the general vibe going on. The level had not been this hard last time she'd played it, she's sure. 

 

There's silence, and then Tuff and Snotlout's squabbling. It's distracting. They're still on time complaints, and Ruff counts down the seconds until they disappear again. Only, this time, they don't. 

 

"Is that all you have to do?" Astrid asks, voice bright and Ruff squints like she imagines you do when you look at the actual, real sun. People in photographs are always squinting in the sun. 

"Uh," Ruff says. It's not her most intelligent moment. "You hit the save token?" 

 

Astrid clearly doesn't know what a save token is. She's obviously done that though, all four of them are sitting in the space beyond the worm field, no more glitching back and forth. 

 

"All you have to _do?_ " Snotlout demands, "took you fucking long enough to do _that._  I'm glad there wasn't anything else you had to do." 

"Who was stuck in a _cheat_ glitch?" Astrid asks, hand dropped from the save token pedestal to her jutted hip. Ruff's all about that general aesthetic. She can't wait for Astrid to kick Snotlout's, _gunsout2003's_ , ass. 

 

It doesn't happen, though. 

 

_Rude._

They _hug,_ which is all kinds of gushy. Tuff looks over, eyebrows in his hairline and then turns a stupid grin towards Ruff. _Absolutely not._

 

"Absolutely _not._ " Ruff says, just as Tuff's opening his arms. Sibling affection is not their thing, Ruff can't believe someone with the handle gunsout2003 would have that as a thing either. "Try it and I break your wings." 

"Not my wings!" Tuff cries, half between mock and real and flutters them antagonistically. 

 

The gush ends with a punch in the shoulder, which is definitely more like it. 

 

"Okay," Astrid says, hooking her blaster up over her shoulder. "One down, two to go." 

 

There's a moment, where everyone just, stands there. Tuff's looking at his fingernails, picking the dirt out from underneath them. Astrid coughs, a fake sharp little thing but he doesn't really move. Another moment of awkwardness passes. Astrid coughs again. 

 

"Are we, like? Waiting for something?" Snotlout looks around at the awkward hunch of everyone's shoulders, frowning. Ruff elbows Tuff, right in the waist, _hard._

 

" _Oh,"_ He says, looking up with a blink, "you mean, get the map out?" 

"Yeah dumbass." Ruff rolls her eyes. 

 

"Let's get to the save space, it's easier there." Tuff suggests, even though it isn't, but it _looks_ less suspicious. Maps are really meant for save spaces, and pauses. The group troops through the save portal, back into the same rolling fields of the save space. 

 

Tuff codes the locality map back up. Clicking around, he finds the game handles previously highlighted, before circling onto the next closest one. It's n3rdpr0ud, so he zooms in on that space. 

 

"Oh," Tuff says, at he looks at the level n3rdpr0ud is stuck on. Ruff bursts into laughter, slapping a hand to her knee, bent over at the waist. Snotlout peeks over Tuff's shoulder and slaps a hand over his mouth in some poor attempt to hide his guffaws. 

 

"What?" Astrid demands, elbowing into their little laugh fest. Tuff goes rocking with the push, only a fluttering of his wings saving him from tipping over. Suddenly, all of Ruff's fantasies involve man-handling. 

 

"It's just, level eleven." Snotlout says, devolving into more laughter before he can explain anything further. 

"What's level eleven?" Astrid prompts, hand movements sharp and demanding. Her brows are dipping to meet, mouth pinched. Yeah, Ruff's fantasies are definitely  _all about_ man-handling, and god, maybe even vaguely praise kink related. 

 

"Like, set in a library," Tuff explains. At Astrid's brows darting closer he waves his hand wildly about, like some kind of demented bat drawing a map. "The books, or like, some of them? Kinda evil, gotta shoot them. I think they want to devour your flesh and yadda yadda. Your friend, n3rdpr0ud? He's camped out in the reference section not shooting anything. Can't finish the level if you _don't_ shoot the books." 

 

"Man, I always said the library was evil, but did _anyone_ listen?" Snotlout announces. Ruff imagines not. She wouldn't have.

 

"An _evil library?_ " Astrid asks, incredulous, "does this game even fucking make sense? Is there any purpose? Some kind of believable continuity? What is even going on? How do we go from giant land worms to devil books?" 

 

"Well, to be fair," Tuff starts, hand waving an explanation, "there's a few levels between. First it's a puzzle level with like? A secret path across, tiny worms that'll eat your bones or something. Next is landmines, with much larger poisonous worms and then our giant, screaming land worms. Level five takes us to the haunted mansion, creepy shit yeah, then the ghost realm and all. Skeletons, I think? Been a while since I played that, then we get to the first level of hell..." 

 

"First level of hell?" Astrid all but actually screeches. Her cheeks are red, expression sharp, "Who plays this shit? Loser twelve year olds?"  

 

"Hey," Snotlout says. Tuff echos it, because really, both of them are _exactly_ that kind of dweeb. 

"Pretty much," Ruff shrugs, she's here because she was _made_ here. Tuff too, but he kind of fits in, honestly. 

 

"Anyway," Tuff carries on, "there's the next levels of hell, level nine is lesser demons and ten gets you to major demons. Eight was, like? demon sidekicks or whatever, so you have all that _between_ giant land worms and evil books."

 

"This game is rubbish." Astrid says, one hand on a hip and the other pointing with the blaster. 

"Yeah," Ruff shrugs again, she wouldn't have chosen _rubbish_ as a descriptor but like, an _actual_ twelve year old has popped up in the save space. 

"I quiet like the third level of hell," Tuff adds. It's a mostly useless addition. 

 

The twelve year old steps closer, eyes wide and shoulders up around his ears. Astrid's still red and beautiful, and mostly just this side of furiously frustrated, the twelve year old can't look away. Ruff can't either, but she's _not_ pathetic and also? Staring at someone who's not way out of her league, or way too old for her. It's ridiculous. 

 

"Hi," the twelve year old says, just as Tuff goes into the merits of lesser demons over major. He's openly looking at Astrid's chest, ogling the rise and dip of the racing-style suit. 

"Go away." Ruff says. When the twelve year old doesn't, she pushes him back with the tip of her blaster.

 

"Hey!" The twelve year old exclaims, voice pitching up. "That thing's loaded." As if Ruff doesn't know her own fucking blaster. 

"Well, I didn't want to catch your cooties so excuse me." Ruff sniffs, well aware she should probably be above snipping with a twelve year old. She's _not,_ but she probably should be. And anyway this was not part of the plan. 

 

"You really should be careful with loaded blasters." Astrid says, frown between her brows. The expression on her face is downright _sisterly_ and _responsible_ and oh is that the opposite of a figurative boner killer. Drier-outer. Whatever, Ruff probably needs to work on descriptive language for that. And maybe? Code herself some morals or something. "Most gun injuries occur when people are just messing around with them. You should be careful." 

"Yeah!" The twelve year old adds, sticking his tongue out. Ruff considers shooting him anyway. 

 

"It's a _game,_ you can't die." She points out, rolling her eyes, "Are we gonna head to level eleven or what?" 

 

"I'm just saying, lesser demons are way more hardcore," Tuff announces, still stuck on the levels of hell conversation. "They gotta be sneaky, it's totally inspiring, you know?" 

"Three words, okay." Snotlout replies, "More. Firepower." 

 

"Firepower is one word," Astrid interrupts with a roll of her eyes. The twelve year old is still hovering at her side. "Let's focus on helping out Fishlegs yeah?" 

 

"Yeah, yeah, okay, _pushy._ " Tuff rolls his whole body instead of just his eyes, wings fluttering. 

 

"Not playing the game is a stupid reason to get stuck on a level," Snotlout says, "maybe we should just leave 'Legs behind." 

"Using a shitty cheat is a terrible reason to get stuck on a level," Astrid counters, hand on a hip. 

 

" _Language."_ Tuff intones, a tic from when game play was supposed to be PG-13. Ruff snorts into her hand, and tries to push the twelve year old away again. When that doesn't work she turns back to the level portals and then codes up a more specific blaster. Something with less oompf, and more precision is good for level eleven. 

 

Finding the correct portal she drops out of the conversation into the space, dropping straight into the back rows of a library. Usually, the level starts at the front desk, but honestly this is easier. 

 

A moment later, the others step in. Tuff's coded his wings bigger, they can actually give him lift now, it's impressive. Astrid's looking at her blaster, glancing over at Ruff's changed one and frowning. Snotlout looks not entirely convinced, about any of this. 

 

And, the twelve year old's still here. 

 

"Don't you have anything better to do?" Ruff hisses, the twelve year old is making _gooey_ gross eyes it's ridiculous. Unprofessional. 

"No," The twelve year old says. Which, duh, of course a loser who plays this game has nothing better to do but follow a girl around and be gross. At least Ruff has an excuse why she's here. 

 

"You'll get in the way, twelve year old." She says. He's already _in the way,_ so yeah.

"Hey!" The twelve year old cries, "I'm not twelve, I'm fifteen." Sounds fake, and also, unimportant, really. 

 

"Whatever," Ruff rolls her eyes, "Tuff, you got coordinates?" 

 

"My name's Gustav," The _fifteen_ year old says, petulant like an actual twelve year honestly. Ruff doesn't care. 

"I don't care." She says. 

 

"We're rescuing my friend and brother Gustav," Astrid says, "you can tag along if you want to help." 

 

Which. No. Unbelievable. An absolute nightmare. 

 

"n3rdpr0ud's in the encyclopedia section," Tuff talks over the lot of him, half a map up for a moment more before he decodes it. "We can spilt up and head in different directions to each the space, make sure we definitely get there." 

 

"Girls vs boys," Ruff says quickly, before anyone else, "race you to n3rdpr0ud's location." She grabs at Astrid's hand, hooking their fingers together with a tiny grin and pulling. Astrid's mouth twists half up into a grin, something secret from the others. 

 

"We're gonna win!" Tuff yells, which is _definitely_ going to attract evil flesh eating books. Ruff just flips him off. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. again, sorry i was so unbelievably slow on the new chapter, i'm working on the next one, i'm not sure how many there will be but ??? at least two more. minimum.   
> 2\. gustav,,, surprised me. he was not invited into this party and yet, here he is. but i guess that's gustav all over... i'm not really Strong on my gustav so ??? if he seems spotty or not right sorry! also. i dont know his age difference i just rlly dont know. rtte just totally changed him up from when he was in dob or rob (i actually dont rmr all the seasons blend to one for me) so i guess spotty characterisation & age changing isn't too off base from actual canon. i dont know where i'll go with him. i'll see what he wants to do in this story.   
> 3\. thanks for reading i hope you enjoy it/still enjoying it and let me know any thoughts/predictions/etc etc i love hearing what y'all have to say and having that interaction.


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